


scientific inquiry

by penhaligon



Series: Watcher Kit [7]
Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:53:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23247349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penhaligon/pseuds/penhaligon
Summary: Vela has some insights to offer.
Relationships: The Watcher & Ydwin (Pillars of Eternity), The Watcher/Ydwin (Pillars of Eternity)
Series: Watcher Kit [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1271783
Comments: 6
Kudos: 17





	scientific inquiry

**Author's Note:**

> I'm here to bring rare pair AO3 tags into existence, apparently.

The mind that approached behind Ydwin's back was shallow like that of all youths, though it held more potential than could be seen with mere eyes. That was to be expected, all things considered, and particularly because of the girl's adoptive mother. Still, Ydwin was quick to set down the flask and turn around, holding up a warning hand.

The little orlan girl obligingly came to a halt just past the strip of bright tape, though she bounced impatiently on the balls of her feet.

"Vela," Ydwin said sternly. "I know the Captain spoke with you about minding this area of the ship. What did she say?"

Vela clasped her hands together as she bounced, contrite in an entirely artificial way, and the corners of Ydwin's mouth made a stubborn attempt to curl upward. They almost managed it. "She said not to cross the line," Vela repeated dutifully.

"And did she say _why_?"

Vela's eyes were round and sparkling as she beheld the desk and Ydwin with it, her pretend penitence already evaporating in the light of curiosity. "To be safe."

The message had clearly not been fully absorbed, if the eager and loud thrumming of the threads of Vela's thoughts was anything to judge by, and Ydwin sighed. She was duty-bound to make another effort, not least because her welcome on board _The Defiant_ would no doubt shrivel up if anything happened to the girl.

"Yes," she said slowly. It had been a long time since Ydwin had been around any children, and she wasn't entirely sure of how to speak to one. But Vela didn't seem to mind her typical parlance and fearlessly asked questions when confused, a trait that would carry her far in life. "This is a place of scientific inquiry, and such inquiry requires caution. Any one of these tools or reagents could harm you if not handled properly."

Vela nodded vigorously, her ears twitching, and nothing in the curious thoughts spilling out of her and buffeting against Ydwin's own suggested that she'd taken the words to heart. Ydwin repressed another sigh. "What's _inquiry?"_

"... Study," Ydwin said. "Pursuit of knowledge." Still, she could hardly fault the girl for an inquisitive nature. It showed more potential than half the occupants of this ship, at least. If Vela could not be swayed with words alone, then perhaps she could be shown the proper handling of scientific instruments, so that neither Ydwin nor the captain need worry about her laying hands on things better left untouched. "If I teach you how to conduct _inquiry_ , will you listen carefully and do everything that I ask?"

Vela immediately bounced a few steps forward. "Yes please!"

"Vela," Ydwin said, stern again.

Once again, Vela clasped her hands together, though she sounded more sincere when she answered this time. "I'll listen, Aunt Ydwin."

Ydwin blinked, the rest of her cobbled-together speech about safety slipping from her thoughts. Aunt? When had they agreed on that? It was how Vela referred to all of the captain's friends, but Ydwin hadn't been aware that Vela placed her in the same category.

Vela continued bouncing, the eagerness of her thoughts giving the motion a tinge of fast-growing impatience. "So what are you doing?" she asked, pointing to the desk and its current display, her ears twitching again.

Ydwin arranged her scattered thoughts back into order and returned her attention to her desk. The hold that made up the belly of the ship was divided into compartments, and the captain had cordoned off a generously large corner of one compartment for Ydwin's work. The warning tape across the floor marked the boundaries of the area, the probable maximum reach of any spills or jolts and then some, and the desk was bolted to the floor on the far side. It had many little compartments of its own for storing tools and reagents, and the work station that made up its surface offered ample space. Another generous purchase from the captain, who was quite keen on supporting scientific inquiry, it seemed.

There were always crew members moving to and fro through the hold, but they gave Ydwin a wide berth and gravitated to the other end of the compartment, and that suited her just fine. She instructed Vela to tie her hair back and wash her hands in the bucket bolted next to the desk, and to replace the lid carefully, then set to explaining the array spread out upon the work station.

"I am investigating some of the more unorthodox properties of luminous adra," Ydwin said, picking up the flask that she'd set down and demonstrating the proper way to hold it for Vela. A recently published tome on just that lay open on the desk, and Vela's eyes honed in on the book like she wanted to pick it up, but she kept her hands to herself. Good. "Since the captain and the god we are pursuing are both interested in the substance, I thought I would contribute to our knowledge base."

When Ydwin handed it to her, Vela held the flask like it was the most precious thing in the world, her hands placed precisely as Ydwin had instructed. Her eyes were large and round as she regarded the soft glow within. "What's _unorthodox_?"

"Unusual," Ydwin clarified, "or different. Your mother is unorthodox because she is a Watcher, and Watchers are... rare."

Vela nodded, and there was genuine understanding winding through the shallow spread of her thoughts that could one day gain great depths indeed. They'd make a scholar out of her yet. "What does _luminous_ adra do?" she asked, drawing out the word like she was testing it, and Ydwin couldn't quite stop the corners of her mouth from twitching.

They walked through a few questions that way, Vela asking for clarification with every unfamiliar word and occasionally using them herself after the fact, in ways that were more correct than not. Something oddly like pride settled in Ydwin's chest with it, and she walked Vela through the many tools and reagents and materials that could be found in the desk, with thorough explanations of how to safely handle and secure each one.

She was in the middle of placing a frequency counter back into its drawer when Vela announced, "I like your glasses."

Ydwin pushed them up the bridge of her nose, reflexive and unthinking. "Thank you."

Vela hovered at her waist, watching as she closed and locked the drawer. "You're pretty," Vela said, and it drew an unexpected little laugh out of Ydwin. She'd forgotten how children often voiced whatever genuine and open thoughts came to mind, and she'd take the compliment for what it was. At least the girl didn't seemed put off by Ydwin's appearance and what it meant. Then Vela added, "My Mama thinks so. I heard Uncle Serafen teasing her about it."

The desk key slipped out of Ydwin's fingers and hit the floor with a thunk, and Ydwin blinked down at it.

Surely Vela had misheard. It was easy for children to misinterpret the words of adults, after all. Ydwin stooped down to pick up the key and asked, "Oh? Did you happen to overhear anything else they discussed?" She could obtain context, at least, and from that deduce why the captain found her an appropriate topic of conversation.

"They talk all the time!" Vela said brightly. "Mama likes to meet other ciphers. I think that's why she likes you so much!"

Well. It certainly wasn't a twinge of _jealousy_ that arose within Ydwin, at the knowledge that Kit apparently spent a great deal of time talking to another cipher. Kit had asked questions of Ydwin too, about her work and her nature as a fampyr, and Ydwin had done her best to answer the former while rebuffing the latter. And she hadn't wanted for anything aboard _The Defiant_ \-- the work space and the steady stream of research supplies were a testament to that.

Though perhaps she would have to reconsider the motive behind them, if the captain was gossiping about her behind her back.

Ydwin pocketed the key, then needlessly pushed her glasses up again. " _Likes_ me," she repeated, in lieu of anything better to say.

Vela bobbed her head up and down. "I can tell," she said conspiratorially. Ydwin was abruptly aware of the crew members passing through the other end of the compartment and found herself glad that they kept their distance. "She thinks you're pretty and smart. I want to be smart like you one day!"

There were certain inquiries that Ydwin would have to make on her own later, when she didn't have a young one to entertain. She would have to examine the feeling that wasn't jealousy and perhaps make some adjustments to who she held at arm's length and why. Or, at the very least, attempt to understand why Vela seemed convinced that the captain held some sort of special favor for Ydwin, out of all kith on the face of Eora.

"You are well on your way to learning already," was all that Ydwin said, however.

Vela beamed at her. "Really?"

"Please tell me that you're not corrupting my child like everyone else on this boat," a voice called out from the throng passing by on the other side of the hold.

The captain herself stepped across the compartment, paying no more heed to the warning tape than her daughter had. She looked, as always, unassuming in pale blues and browns and Calbandra braids, not even carrying any visible weapons while at sea, and with only an adra pendant to make her stand out, and so it couldn't be her appearance that instantly drew Ydwin's gaze like so.

Vela bounced excitedly and spun around to offer a salute. "Ahoy!"

Kit returned the salute. "Ahoy," she said, coming to a stop before them and resting a hand on her hip. "You haven't learned any more terrible words, have you?"

"I haven't taught her any Ordhjóma profanity," Ydwin said dryly. "It is largely unpronounceable to those unfamiliar with the language."

Vela spun around to face Ydwin and offer up large, pleading eyes. "I want to learn!"

" _No,_ " Kit said, caught somewhere between stern and amused. Perhaps it was simply the nature of her soul's presence, Ydwin mused, that caught the metaphorical eye. Vivid and arresting even when the threads were cut full of holes, brimming with thoughts of which Ydwin couldn't even begin to breach or untangle. It was rare to meet such a powerful cipher, let alone a Watcher.

"I've been instructing her in scientific inquiry,” Ydwin said, when Vela pouted. "Lab safety, to be precise."

Understanding lit in Kit's eyes, suspicion on its heels, and she frowned down at Vela. "Did you touch something you weren't supposed to?"

Vela rocked back and forth on her heels with hands clasped once again, the picture of innocence. "No, Mama," she said, in a way that indicated that she had most certainly been planning to before Ydwin noticed her. "I just wanted to look."

"Vela has been a very clever student," Ydwin added, when Kit didn't appear convinced, because credit was owed where it was due. "She listens well."

Kit's eyebrows arched. _She doesn't usually listen,_ she said, her mind's voice echoing in Ydwin's thoughts: the solitary statement and no more, not a drop of excess thought or feeling accompanying the mental contact. Fine control of a kind obtained after years of dedicated practice, and an admirable indication of skill, so why was Ydwin suddenly wondering if she exercised that much restraint with Serafen? "Good," Kit said aloud, still looking faintly impressed. "I hope you learned a lot."

"Mm-hmm!" Vela said, her ears twitching happily. "I'm gonna be a scientist too, and do inquiry!"

Kit snorted, barely holding back a laugh. _She doesn't want to be a scientist when it's_ _ **me**_ _running research._

Ydwin considered it for a moment and let something like a smile answer in turn. _Perhaps it is because I am a novelty,_ she said, and she peeled back some of the layers shielding her own mind and let her amusement trickle outward with it, adhering to her decision to make adjustments to her own arm's length.

Kit's head tilted, a faint flash of surprise crossing her face if not her thoughts. "Then we'll have to get you a lab one day," she said to Vela. "For now, you can use mine or Ydwin's, but only when we're around, okay?"

"Okay," Vela said, very seriously, and Ydwin knew that she took the words to heart this time.

 _Better a scientist than a pirate,_ Kit said, and this time, dry amusement returned with it, and a flash of images behind Ydwin's eyes: Vela donning a tricorn and imitating Serafen's speech patterns, earning uproarious laughter from the gathered crew.

Ydwin almost succumbed to an irrational sense of irritation over it, except it occurred to her, then, that Kit had effectively bestowed her blessing upon Ydwin to watch over her daughter. It wasn't something that Ydwin would take lightly, either, and it mollified her illogical flare of resentment. She tugged at the cuff of her coat, as if self-conscious, though of course she wasn't. "Did you need something, Captain?"

The title was habit, even though Kit had offered the opportunity for Ydwin to use her given name instead, and Ydwin began reconsidering the door she'd closed in that conversation.

"What?" Kit asked, before her thoughts caught up. "Oh, no. I just wanted to see what you were up to."

Ydwin was reconsidering motive, too, and perhaps it was nothing to be concerned about. Perhaps gossip was just gossip, and not even of the nastier sort. Perhaps Vela was accurate in her assessment, and Ydwin would have to examine how she felt about it. So Ydwin gestured to the desk behind her. "One could always benefit from a refresher on lab safety," she said, so gravely that she could feel Kit's thoughts twisting about themselves in an attempt to figure out whether that was a joke or not. They weren't as shielded as before, Ydwin noted.

"I can show you!" Vela declared, brimming with importance.

Kit stared for a moment, her eyes shifting between Vela and Ydwin, and then she grinned. "You're the master," she told Vela, and Vela held out a demanding hand for Ydwin's key, practically bouncing in excitement again.

Ydwin retrieved the key from her pocket and handed it over, and as Vela tried to remember where the goggles and gloves were stored, Ydwin dipped her head to Kit. She could start with something she'd rather neglected. "I don't believe I've properly thanked you for this," she said, gesturing to the desk again. "For the chance to indulge in genuine field research again. I owe the Vailians much for their resources and time, but the teams to which I found myself assigned were often quite... stationary."

Kit waved the thanks aside. "I just like having someone to talk to about it," she said, and her gaze trailed over the wood of the deck above. "I'm thinking of trading her in for a galleon eventually. I can make a better floating lab out of that."

"You intend to make this a long-term pursuit?" Ydwin asked, surprised, as Vela rattled the key in another lock. Even with all of her expert shielding and fine control, Kit couldn't quite keep the homesickness from leaking out of her at odd hours of the day.

Kit sighed. There was a dark and troubled knot somewhere in her thoughts, into which Ydwin couldn't quite see, though she was strangely honored that Kit let her glimpse it at all. "I don't think this'll be over soon," she said, watching as Vela opened another drawer and exclaimed in disappointment when it did not, in fact, reveal the goggles or gloves. "Even when it's over. You know?"

Ydwin did know. A god stomping about an archipelago and making his kind nervous enough to rely on a mortal was certainly up to no good and no small endeavor, though Ydwin found herself looking forward to the end result, for no reason other than sheer curiosity. She knew Kit felt much the same, that she would pursue it to any bitter end, if necessary, with a fierce and enduring tenacity. It was something else to admire about her.

"If I have learned anything in our time together," Ydwin said, wincing internally at the unintentional hesitancy in her voice, and she cleared her throat, "it is that your sense of the world is often accurate." And then, tugging at her cuff again, she made an adjustment and ventured, "And if you have need of me... Kit, then I would like to see it through as well. However long it may take." She was aware of what that meant, coming from her, because time -- already a long road for a Glamfellen -- had functionally ceased for her.

Kit cast her a long sideways glance, her brows furrowing with something unreadable, and Ydwin was seized with the desire to busy herself, so she stepped forward and stooped once more, getting Vela's attention and pointing to the correct drawer. Vela immediately shoved the key in and crowed in triumph upon finding the desired materials within.

"Good," Kit said softly, somewhere at Ydwin's shoulder as Ydwin stepped back, and her thoughts were warm and grateful. "I'm going to need all the help I can get."

Vela pulled the goggles on, giggling at the sight of the world behind them, and they immediately slid down the bridge of her nose. She had a similar problem with the gloves, which drooped and refused to stay on, and Ydwin gathered them up, rather than look directly at Kit.

"Why don't I make you a custom pair?" Ydwin said, placing the gloves back into their bag, and Vela's eyes grew wide at the idea. "Though I will need to take measurements first."

Vela immediately shoved her hands in Ydwin's face. "Okay!"

Ydwin’s mouth fluttered at the corners. "Those materials are in my bunk," she said, gently pushing the little hands down. "Show the Captain what else you've learned."

Vela demonstrated the correct way to hold a flask, and explained how it was okay to do so without gloves if it was corked and there had been no spill and one's hands were clean, and Kit nodded along like it was the first time that she'd heard any of this. Her troubled thoughts unraveled and wove themselves into something fond and perpetually tired at the seams and no longer locked down quite so tight, and Ydwin found herself paying more attention to that than to the demonstration, wondering what else lay beyond in the tangled threads of that inscrutable mind.

There was much to consider and reconsider, she thought, but the invitation stood open, and had perhaps been there from the moment that Kit had invited her aboard. It fell only to Ydwin to pursue it.

And pursuit, well -- she'd been getting plenty of experience in that, as of late.


End file.
